The Most Unenjoyable Experience

This is the Drive Podcast with Josh Graham.

Now you're talking my language. You can hear the Drive weekday afternoons three till six on WSJS. We're so glad to have you on this Tuesday Drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad. Nine o'clock tip for Wake Forest Pit tonight at Joel Coliseum. We will be out there as will Wake legend Randolph Childress. He's got the call with Mike Monaco on television tonight. Prior to calling the game he'll be hanging out in studio with us in just a little bit. It's an incredibly significant game.

We'll get to all of that shortly. Right now though we need to talk about the Carolina Panthers offensive line. There seems to be a popular sentiment that because the Panthers allowed 65 sacks last year, which was second most in the league, that Carolina needs to blow it up. They need to blow up this group.

They need an overhaul. The day the season ended the Charlotte observers Scott Fowler wrote off Iki Iquanu saying he needed to be bumped inside to guard from left tackle. He's not worth the top 10 pick he was taken with two years is enough of a sample bump him inside. ESPN wrote a story yesterday suggesting the Panthers pursue free agent tackle Trent Brown. Not only do I think it's unlikely that the Panthers do either of those things, I don't think it's prudent either. The Panthers don't need a new offensive line.

They need a healthier one. Carolina started 12 different linemen last year including nine different starters at the two guard spots. Nine starters.

Nine times. Some of these guys don't even sound like real people. It is good that Bradley Bozeman, Taylor Moten, and Iki Iquanu played in all 17 games last year, but once you got past Austin Corbett and Brady Christensen who were hurt pretty much the entire year, Calvin Throckmorton, Cade Mays, Chandler Zavala, Nash Jensen, Gabe Jackson, Justin McRae, Brett Toth. What's a Brett Toth? If I told you Brett Toth, WWE wrestler or Panthers offensive lineman that started in a game last year today, if I told you that before the last couple of minutes, how would you have answered that question?

Probably you go wrestler. I never heard of that person and I covered the team. So Carolina needs to get healthier. There isn't a team in the league that could survive that level of turnover from a health perspective.

That's why it's too soon to bail on this group. Iki, Bozeman, and Moten, those three guys who played in all 17 games, they're under contract not just this year but next year too. Christensen and Corbett, they have one more year left with the Panthers. So Carolina doesn't have to do anything. They could just roll it back with these guys, invest in them, make sure they're healthy, maybe build some depth beneath them, behind them, but not try to find different starters.

They've invested a lot. A top 10 pick in Iki, a lot of money in Bradley Bozeman. It's not time to bail, especially when you consider all five of those linemen worked together in 2022 when the Panthers were actually having success with their line running that power run scheme under Steve Wilks. We've seen this group play successfully. So bailing on it when it is so difficult to find above average to good linemen in that sport doesn't make a lot of sense. Dave Canales, he told us on this show a few weeks ago that he's going to run a style that best fits the personnel Carolina has.

Here he was when we asked specifically about the power run scheme possibilities. It's going to be basically whatever we can block and coach the best. So it's going to it's going to revolve around who those players are. We have a profile for what we're looking for but the thing I love to say is we are going to become us. That's going to take some time. You know, it's going to take the off season. That's going to take all the camp to really, you know, see where do we look fast, where do we look aggressive and confident.

And if you can see those things start to emerge in a play type and a play style, we'll know what we're going to be about. Frank Reich didn't do that. Frank Reich tried to fit square pegs through a round hole. We got Thomas Brown. He runs this outside zone offense under McVeigh.

It was effective there. We're going to try to coach up our guys to fit into that scheme versus looking at the personnel that you have and then applying a style to that. The Panthers this year, we hope, aren't going to ask Bradley Bozeman to be a vertical next level type of center when he's not athletic enough to do that. He's a power run center and he's pretty good at that. We saw that in 2022. Icky, an incredible run blocker. It's too soon to bail on him.

You've invested so much. It's too soon to bail on Bozeman who you have two more years left on his contract. This group can work together because we've seen it work together. If the O-line is healthy, regardless of what the scheme is, if it's healthy, then they're not a terrible line. They're not giving up 65 sacks like they did a year ago. It's already close to being a net neutral, maybe slightly a net negative if Carolina's running a scheme that still doesn't fit this unit. If they run a scheme that fits them, the offensive line, I won't go as far to say it'll be a strength.

It won't be a problem for the Panthers and that's enough reason to run it back if there's even the possibility of that, of investing within, of finding the answers on your roster because there are enough problems elsewhere that you don't need to go out of your way to create more problems. On X at WSJS radio, if you want in on today's show, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show, watched Inception for the first time last night. Next week's movie will either be Blazing Saddles, All the President's Men, The Fast and the Furious, and Spotlight.

What was that Ian Eagle? Inception was that. The movie right now that's leading the poll, I want to describe as being a thinking man's picture. Blazing Saddles has 52% of the vote but still pretty early on, only about 100 people have voted on this. The Fast and Furious, All the President's Men, Spotlight, the other options again. Do you have a rooting interest between the four?

I think it's time I see Blazing Saddles. Okay, so that's the one you are rooting for but vote on that poll at Josh Grahamshale at WSJS radio on Twitter slash X. Everything points to Wake Forest beating Pitt comfortably tonight, huh? Pittsburgh has won five in a row Josh, including against Wake, and Wake just lost to a team that Virginia Tech beat by 34 last night. Wake's lost two in a row. What do you mean Wake should win this game comfortably? Well for starters, Wake should have won that first meeting at the Oakland Zoo. Wake led by 12 in the second half, they controlled the boards, did everything that they did everything that they wanted to do in this game, and then Carlton Carrington lost his mind shooting, you know, many more shots than he generally takes. I think he had 24 in the game, maybe even more than that, 24, 28 points. Blake Henson at 17. Pitt had three guys combined for 63 of the 77 points they scored.

It was not the most sustainable deal. That's not going to happen again and it's not going to happen in Winston-Salem America. This game's in the Joel, it's not in PA. Wake Forest is 13-0 at the Joel this year. Steve Forbes has an incredible mark at home since his second season. He doesn't really count the first year, that was the weird wonky COVID season, but Wake's only lost single-digit games at home, his tenure at Wake Forest.

Also, Wake has made strides since that last matchup, not even a month ago. Damari Monsanto, that was the third game he played since returning to the lineup. His minutes have gone up a great deal, playing in crunch time on Saturday against Virginia and playing the most minutes we've seen him play, over 20 minutes against Duke. He's playing more. Parker Fredrickson, as a freshman, he's doing a lot more.

Steve Forbes on this show yesterday was singing his praises. He's played crunch time rather than Boopie Miller the last couple games. So Steve Forbes has a lot more depth and a lot more options in his bag than he had even at this time a month ago prior to Wake Forest playing Pitt in PA. And there should be an urgency with Wake tonight, more of an urgency with them than with the Pitt Panthers. That isn't to say it isn't important for Pitt, both these teams are tied for fourth in the ACC standings, the top four teams in the standings get the double buy in the ACC tournament in DC, but Wake is coming off two heartbreakers. Pitt has won five in a row. Wake can't afford to lose this game. They need to win the night and they need to beat Duke on Saturday. That needs to happen as a starting point for their NCAA tournament case. Pitt, meanwhile, even if they lose this one, still winning five of six and they still have a road game at Little John Coliseum at Clemson.

Okay. So it's not as dire for Pitt as it is Wake Forest tonight and I think it'll show. Wake Forest by a dozen tonight over the Pitt Panthers. At my alma mater in Greenville, America, our buddy Darren Vaught was on the call for perhaps the coolest thing I've seen in sports the last week, where an ECU baseball player as a recruit got in a boating accident, lost part of his leg, had to get it amputated and Cliff Godwin inspired him to still be part of the program and try to find a path onto the playing field. And last Friday, drawing a walk in Wake's where, pardon me, East Carolina's opener, Parker Bird became the first collegiate athlete to participate with a prosthetic leg.

You got to see that up close. Darren Vaught, ACC baseball, etc., calling a ton of baseball, including the Jacksonville baseball classic, which is streaming exclusively on d1baseball.com. You and Kyle Peterson, who we've come to know on ESPN and the draft coverage for MLB Network.

That's going to be cool with a lot of great programs being part of that. How special was this first weekend of the season? WD and I, we were out at the couch and saw Wake Homer on its first pitch on its first at bat offensively this year and Chase Burns seeing his stuff on Saturday was great. Just how special was it for you as somebody who loves the sport the way you do? Really special, surreal, awkward in that it was a situation that would force many to sort of lose the ability to find the appropriate words.

But I was the person or one of the people responsible for talking through it. It was really cool and at Clark Eau Claire Stadium, just like you guys saw at the couch, we saw the largest opening day crowd they've ever had. They stuck around through a blowout for this moment as we sort of had an inkling that it might happen.

Cliff had alluded to, hey, you know, it's opening weekend, knock on wood. We do well in this series as the number 11 team in the country. We're probably going to get a situation where I'm going to be able to get him in and get him a pinch hit appearance. The story's great in and of itself that he's able to take batting practice every day. But here he is in a game and he draws a five pitch walk and you get the ovation all over again because they send out a pinch runner for him. So it was just a lot of opportunity to thankfully, in my case, just shut up and let it happen because I was having a hard time figuring out what to say anyway.

So it worked to my advantage. And man, just like what a what a cool, cool moment for Parker. If he if he gets the chance and gets a base hit in that place this year, by the way, like it might register on the Richter scale. Clark LeClair is going to go bananas. Let's get to unusual questions with Darren Vaught. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's OK. It's time for Unusual Questions with Josh Graham. If you have an unusual question for Darren and you would like to see Wake Forest play Pittsburgh tonight at nine o'clock at the Joel, incredibly meaningful game.

3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600, the first to call in and ask an unusual question. We'll have those tickets for later on tonight. How about local product Zach Austin making his return to the Triad?

High point, baby. Yeah. So keep an eye on Zach.

Keep an eye on Zach Austin tonight at Joel Coliseum. I'm going to use my unusual question to practically ask you which movie W.D. should watch for the first time next week, because here are the options.

We just came up with these. Blazing Saddles, 50 year anniversary. All the President's Men, perhaps the greatest political movie ever.

It's an election year. Thought that would be fun. My favorite newspaper movie, Spotlight, with all the president's men in mind and The Fast and the Furious. W.D. has not seen the original, but has seen bits and pieces apparently of Too Fast, Too Furious, because we're talking about W.D. here.

So those are your four options. Man, I love Spotlight, like maybe the best movie of that decade. Blazing Saddles is a classic. You can't miss with that one. I like speaking of political movies, I like I prefer The Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd, yeah, yeah. Really, really good one.

I would put that in the conversation of best political movies, although I know it's not on the table here. I think you got to go Spotlight. I just it's a it's a better movie overall.

OK, Spotlight gets your vote. What's your unusual question, W.D.? What is your favorite pair of shoes that you've ever had?

Oh, good question. Yeah. I love my Jordan ones. I thought it'd be the 11s, but I think the ones just I think they look the coolest. And those are my favorite shoes I've ever owned. I love my Jordan one.

I don't think mine. Mine are shoes that I own currently. I was at like many listening, I'm sure I was an East Bay kid, so I clamored over like whatever basketball shoes in the East Bay catalog, except, you know, I would actually order a pair every season I had. Do you guys remember the Dada's that were customizable? They had the middle panel that you could make the different colors now. D-A-D-A, you don't remember the Dada basketball shoe? No, I remember Starberries very well.

Chris Webber's signature shoe was was Dada. Let me see if I could. Yeah, you get to pull this out. It'll it'll it'll ring a bell. The second you see it, they were all. Oh, yeah. The ones that look like space shoes.

Yep. I had a pair of those for when I was playing middle school basketball. Our colors were orange and black. The base was black.

The little side panel was the metallic orange. And I got mine customized at the time. I went by the nickname Doc.

Why? The glasses, you know, being like studious. My first radio nickname was the professor. People called me the professor.

It was like two or three people. Similarly, the professor of and one mixtape tour was was pretty popular at the time. So I think I think Doc was like the professor alternative for me. So the Dada is probably my favorites. W.D., did you have a favorite shoe?

I do. I've had a couple of pair of Jordans that I've really liked, but I think the favorite shoe I've ever had was the Kobe seven cheetah. It had a cheetah print design on it. I had a baseball coach who had purple ones that were really jealous. I was expecting one of you guys to say like Healy's when you were. I had some. That's my other favorite pair of shoes. I had some Healy's.

I'd ride around them all in them. Darren, what's your unusual question? Of course you did. Yeah. I reminisced when I saw that William Byron won the Daytona 500. Charlotte's own.

Yep. So one of the very, very, very first times I ever filled in. In this very time slot on your very station, WSJS, this would have been before your time as the host in this slot and at WSJS. I was filling in from Raleigh. We connected to like one of the little corner bunker studios.

Sure. Where I was doing the D.G. show. So it was chaotic, right? Like I had to hop from one show to the next, which was in a different studio, a different room. There were different producers on a daily basis. So it was just like booking the show and everything. It was kind of chaotic. I was at their mercy.

I was like, if you guys need to service guests, like throw anybody on with me. This is a question. Well, I think there's a story with it.

Sorry. So I get told during one of the commercial breaks, again, maybe the second or third time I've ever filled in on this station, I get told during the commercial break, hey, we're doing a racing interview when we come back, like with who? With who? And the producer at the time was like, William Byron. I said, who the hell is William Byron?

He's an 18 year old race car driver. I'm like, OK, what am I going to ask him? I did an interview with William Byron when he was 18 years old, had no clue who he was, no idea what to ask. Yeah.

And I thought about that yesterday. So my question to you, Josh, specifically, what's the worst interview you've ever had? Oh, my gosh.

So many come to mind. That's a good thing or not. I was in studio for Charlotte Flair. That was an awkward one. Yeah. Yeah, that was awkward.

You never know with the pro wrestlers, too, because like some of them go full kayfabe. The worst interview I ever had. I think he'd be all right with me saying this. Dave Clausen had no interest doing an interview one time. It was the week of a bowl game.

It was signing day. I knew it was bad news when he told my producer before he was like, how long is this going to be? Oh, great. And he didn't want to answer anything. And then five minutes later, he's like, I got to go.

Bye. Hung up on the interview. Was that the one where you asked him some chicken wings?

Oh, yeah. He didn't want to play ball talking about signing day. Notre Dame Clemson. He played both those teams. He didn't want to play ball with, you know, the game coming up that weekend.

UAB, I think, just came back to life as a program and played in a bowl game and they're in Birmingham. I thought that'd be good. Like, I pulled out all the stops and we were going nowhere. So I went to chicken wings and then he was like, I got to go.

Bye. But that was like the first year we were on the show. That was like 2018.

So that was probably in the time of this show, the worst, just because he had a lot of stuff going on. It happens. It does. Darren Bhatt, enjoy Jacksonville. Enjoy all the other stuff that you're doing. Thanks so much for making the time. As always, we'll talk to you next week. Of course. Of course. Pleasure as always, guys.

WD reviews Inception 15 minutes from now. This might not be a popular take, but I miss Rick Pitino being in the ACC. Louisville has not been a great ad since joining the conference, but the short period of time they were contributing was when Pitino coached the team. And he's a name. People care what he has to say.

He's polarizing. That's good for the sport. And whenever you talk to basketball coaches about who they believe is the best within an industry, it always goes back to Pitino. X's and O's wise, I've heard a dozen basketball coaches say if they can win one game, if they have a coach to win one game, they needed to get any guy, any guy across the country. They've said Rick Pitino is the guy that you get. He's in his first year at St. John's. And it's important to remember when you hear what Rick Pitino had to say, the rant that he went on a couple of days ago.

St. John's is not terrible. They are right on the bubble. According to Joe Leonardi, a few games over 500 in the Big East, which is good this year, you would not know that.

Listening to Rick Pitino after his team's loss to Seton Hall, hear some of that. I think they're unathletic. I don't think they move well laterally. I don't think they're going to pick it up in the next week. I think they're slow laterally.

I mean, Sean Conway gives you everything he can. He's slow laterally. About five guys are slow laterally. Just, we're slow laterally, you guys. We're just slow.

Don't know what to tell you. We're an unathletic team. He wasn't done.

Not for a long shot. Even the Celtics, when we lost, I've enjoyed every minute being the Boston Celtics coach. Didn't like the fact that we lost in that following year. But this has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had since I've been coaching.

Do you have any second thoughts of taking this job? No, not at all. It's not St. John's. It's my team. Boston.

Oh, one second. He said that was the most, this is the least enjoyable experience he's had since coaching basketball. Remind you, he had, you know, an assistant coach who had their house raided, I believe. Like, he was at the center of an FBI investigation into college basketball. There was an unseemly detail about his infidelity involving a restaurant and a bathroom, and he was like, you know what, I'm talking about. That couldn't have been great.

He had a, there was a prostitute scandal. There was a championship banner that was taken down at the Yum Center. This, all of these things were more enjoyable than being a couple game-changer. Were more enjoyable than being a couple games over 500 at St. John's right now? This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. Unbelievable. That's gotta feel terrible. Rick, imagine being his players. That's what I'm saying. That's gotta feel terrible for them. But I bet you that's what he wants them to hear. He wants to tear into them. We have more from Rick Pitino.

Let's get to the last bit of it. Just thinking of getting ready for Georgetown because Georgetown could definitely beat us. I'm not even thinking of the future at all. I'm just thinking of the next game and the next game and the next game and that's it. Just try to get as many wins as you possibly can and represent St. John's in the best fashion you can. Georgetown, they can definitely beat us. Georgetown hasn't won a basketball game since January the 6th. They are 8-17.

They have beaten one Big East team this year. That's the message Rick Pitino wanted to send. This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. It's amazing. Sometimes via email I get people who say the same exact thing listening to this show. I get some version of this. This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had.

Every time we play weekly positivity I look at my mentions and there's at least one person saying This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. Love Rick Pitino. Missed that guy. I would play the Hayes Permar cover song that he did. Oh boy. Parody song he did about Pitino but you can't.

There are many parts of it we can't play on the air sadly. Carolina Cobras season's coming up. Looking down I see that tickets are now on sale for single game and season tickets. Seven home games. Just go to wsjs.com, click on the Carolina Cobras tab and we'll send you directly to their website. Opening day is Sunday March the 24th. They're facing, remember the name of the team from Omaha WD? The Omaha Beef.

That's right. Get your tickets now. Season tickets range from just over 50 bucks to 550 dollars.

wsjs.com will send you right to the Carolina Cobras website to get those season tickets. Last night in the ACC. I think we have exclusive sound from Tony Bennett's post-game press conference of what the experience might have been like losing by 34 points to Virginia Tech. This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. That was Tony Bennett after being down. Oh wait we actually have exclusive locker room sound at halftime when it was 16 to 14 when it was 16 to 14 and Virginia Tech went on a 20 to nothing run towards the end of the first half. This was Tony Bennett in the locker room to his players.

This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. Virginia is an enigma. It's hard to explain Virginia basketball. It could not have gone worse for them last night. They scored 41 points on offense. wd in the last two games combined offensively, Virginia has scored 90 points. That's it 90 points in two games. Defensively they allowed 75 points. It was a 34 point loss. That just doesn't happen to Virginia.

Like we all thought even when it was a 20 to nothing run. Oh well Virginia is going to cut it to 9 or 10 in the second half. They got outscored in the second half too.

Incredible to watch and here's the thing. Virginia could still win the ACC. They didn't get eliminated from that last night. This is a quirk in their schedule. They have not played either Duke or Carolina yet. Carolina plays Virginia once. They play Duke once and Virginia is gonna host Carolina on Saturday. Before Virginia visits Duke at Cameron the following weekend.

Now while that might be the case. While they can still win the ACC regular season. We did learn yesterday this team's not going to win anything in March.

Not in DC. Even if they play on Thursday, I'll give them Thursday night they could win. I don't think they win on back-to-back days. I don't even think they get to Saturday. They certainly don't win on Saturday.

So maybe they can get to Saturday night. I don't think they can win this team three consecutive days and in the NCAA tournament. Like pencil it into your bracket now. Hey here's four seed Virginia or five seed Virginia. Five seed Virginia facing a 12. Oh there's 12 seeded Appalachian State facing Virginia. Who are we gonna pick there? Gonna be a popular 12 seed 12-5 upset. If they get by in the first round, they ain't getting by in the second round. That's where I stand on Virginia.

But they're an enigma. They trying to explain how that team can beat Wake Forest on Saturday and then turn around and get beat by Virginia Tech by 34 points. And I don't even know what piece is the most surprising. That they scored just 41 or that they allowed 75 in the game. That's that is Virginia basketball for you friends.

This has been the most unenjoyable experience I've had. Make sure you're subscribed to our podcast. If you aren't already, search The Drive with Josh Graham. iTunes, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Anchor.

You can also find our links at wusjs.com. We have our poll question that's up. Trying to figure out what movie WD should watch next week.

55% of the vote belongs to Blazing Saddles right now. Over Fast & Furious Spotlight and all the President's Men. But we'll continue to revisit that throughout the show.

Randolph Childress is going to join us a little bit later. We're approaching the one year anniversary of doing video at On The Drive. The YouTube channel and all that. So make sure you're subscribed to the channel. It'd be pretty cool if we get to 1500 subscribers by the one year mark next week.

So hammer that as we're getting close to the 1500 subscriber mark. Just search The Drive with Josh Graham. All this is free and available to you as a service to access the show. Hey, you can watch us on video.

You can get us on demand on the podcast as well. WD's movie last week was Inception and Will, don't you want to take a leap of faith and or just become an old man filled with regret waiting to die alone. At The Movies is next. 2009's Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt directed by Christopher Nolan. WD's movie for this week. Christopher Nolan in a few weeks expected to win the Best Director Oscar for Oppenheimer. And that movie is expected to win Best Picture as well. So we figured we'd do another Nolan movie.

Let's get into it, though. WD watching Inception for the first time at the movies with the WD. What you liked, what you didn't like. Best quote, Rotten Tomatoes score. Audience score.

Can WD get within five, we shall find out. What did you like about Inception? Now, 15 years old. This truly is a thinking man's picture. Ian Eagle, shout out to you. That's right. For the drop that he gave us that has turned this segment into what it's become.

Do I need to continue? Music's a little loud over it, but it's OK. We get the premise of it. No, it really is a thinking man's picture because it's about dreams. It's about dreams.

And I constantly found myself trying to figure out when something was a dream, when something was real. This is the what you liked portion. Well, because like it kept me thinking. Did you like that? Well, it kept me interested. I'll be honest with you, on the first viewing of this movie, I didn't love it. What did you like about it?

Anything? Well, the fact that it was keeping me thinking, like trying to figure out what was going on and trying to figure out like what was a dream and what wasn't like you had the stuff with the top. So you liked that? Yes, it was interesting.

OK, I will agree. Even if you don't know what the heck's going on, it's a cool movie. It is. It's a cool movie. It's an original story.

There's nothing like it. It's a one on one and it looks cool. The hotel hallway, zero gravity fighting and yes, the the way that the water looks and the slow motion dunk by Leo DiCaprio at the beginning. It's a very cool movie. It it also reminded me a lot of The Matrix. I can see that. As far as in fact, I'm pretty sure I think Nolan got some of his inspiration from The Matrix for this, like just what's reality, what isn't type stuff like it's that's interesting to me. This would have been something that made this age either beautifully or terribly. But I read just doing a few Google searches about the history of this movie and the timeline of this movie that considered for the Ellen Page role, Taylor Swift. Huh?

Taylor Swift as the female character making the designs and stuff. What didn't you like about Inception? I'm not it just made my head want to explode at times.

Give me an example. And also, like, OK, like, was it a dream at the end or was that real? Something that's been debated for a long time. You don't like twist endings like that or endings that are ambiguous endings that you kind of have to come up with it on your own.

Correct. Not particularly for me, regardless of how many times you've watched this. And I've seen this movie about five or six times now. The physics of it all that are sometimes I watch it and think, I got it. This is brilliant. And then another time, like me watching last night, where I'm like, does this make any sense at all?

Oh, you know, the kick where if you the feeling of falling like your chair, like falling sideways a little bit will wake you up and take you out of this slumber. But I'm led to believe that none of them wake up during the bus or the van falling off of the bridge. All right.

I'm sure that's consistent. And there's just a lot of stuff like that that doesn't really make sense, that when you try to dive like an inch deep into the physics of it all, the science of it all, it seems flimsy at best. I don't know if the movie was designed to be dissected that type of way. I do feel and we mentioned this about Tenet yesterday. I do feel this is a movie I'm going to have to watch maybe a couple more times. I refuse to watch Tenet a second time because Christopher Nolan has arrived at the place and Inception is right on the border of this, where it's like made for repeat consumption, which is fine if you get more out of movies by rewatching them, just as long as it's still good and comprehendable the first time.

And Tenet isn't. So I refuse to watch it a second time. I hear people say, oh, man, it's so good. You just got to watch it again.

I refuse because I was so mad at Christopher Nolan for wasting my time for three hours the first time. What's the best quote for Inception? Um, I don't know if there was really a funny quotes in this one, but there are a few one that made you dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realized something was actually strange. When Cobb said that, wielding a rocket launcher, Bane said, you mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

Yeah, Tom Hardy, who played Bane soon after this. You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you very far away. That was a good one, too.

Marion Cotillard throwing a hundred. That's some subconscious you got, Cobb. By the way, real quickly, something else I did like, I'm a big fan of Hans Zimmer's work. Oh, my goodness, man. Great study music. I used to pull up time from this movie. In fact, I want you to kill the music and I want you to find time by Hans Zimmer.

I was going to bring this up, but I didn't want to throw extra work on you. But since you brought up Hans Zimmer, like when you get into and you can't start it from the beginning, you've got to go like into the middle of time because it's like a 10 minute song when it gets to the point where it's starting to hit. And I think that's the song that plays at the end of this movie.

Great to play when you're getting work done or you're paying the bills or you just need some background music time. Hans Zimmer, Hans Zimmer might have been the best performer in this movie. Rotten Tomatoes score very quickly for Inception. I'd give it an 83.

91 percent. People love this movie. Wow, high.

You know, it'd be great if I do this next read with Hans Zimmer's time playing in the background so that way people will be so locked in on the words coming out of my mouth. So good. Turn that up a little. BJ's Brewhouse, the best place to watch big games and Winston-Salem go to their website, BJ's restaurant dot com, see their excellent reviews and menu, and you can dine in or take out or choose delivery. BJ's Brewhouse. Brewhouse should do that for all our reef. BJ's great. Big win for BJ's Brewhouse.

I'll say shout out to those guys. Randolph Childress is here in about three and a half hours. He will be on the call with Mike Monaco, Wake Forest, and Pitt tonight. You follow college basketball at large with Field of 68. Do you see an eye test difference between the top five teams, we'll say, in the ACC, maybe five or six if it's Wake and Pitt included in that mix, and say the five best teams in the Big 12?

No. Or the five best in the Big East. It's funny when you hear that because you talk about these leagues, right? And you get into who's better or how strong, like the Big East right now, because of UConn, the Big East. But the Big East beat Carolina. I mean, Connecticut, UConn beat Carolina, and I get it. UConn beats everybody. UConn beat everybody. And the Carolina team that we see, well, not at the very moment, but most recently, had been one of the better teams in the country. And they had gotten better. And I think you see a better team. They belong. I think Carolina has proven they belong.

And if you look at the Big East, it's UConn and what? For this to be such a leaps and bounds, so much better than everyone else. I think you hit the button. I hit the button again. I'm sorry, y'all.

That's fine. Could we just move the button, man? You keep me... No, I'm kidding. I wish I'm there.

I can try. And so even when you get to the Big 12, we watched the game last night. I do think Iowa State and Houston are really good teams. I mean, they're really good teams. And so I get the argument. And you can say, I don't think Kansas is as good as they've been in years past.

But they're really, really good. I put Kansas in a similar box I put Duke in. I would. I would.

I put them in then. I don't think there's Duke teams special. I think there's a few more teams in the Big 12 maybe, but not many. I don't know if I'd go past Kansas, Iowa State, Houston, and maybe I'm missing one other team. And I'll even concede the Big 12, just because I think as a league, they've made decisions as a conference to prioritize basketball in a way the ACC has not.

I agree. And that you see it with the pop in the buildings at all these places and the way they prioritize the net and gaming that, I give them credit for that too, because they perform in March. The Big East, other than UConn, we're not talking about those teams as prominently as national title contenders the way that we talk about Baylor and Kansas and Houston in recent years. And Baylor was a team that I'd add as that fourth team. I'm talking about the Big 12.

What I would say is that's what I think the biggest difference is. I think as a league, I think they've prioritized for the league how to benefit the net as a conference. And I don't know if we've done that or the ACC has done that. And Steve Forbes was on this show yesterday saying a good example of something you could be proactive in is league scheduling, tailoring back the schedule from 20 to 18 league games.

He thinks that given what the net has shown you about conference play, how many of the things are already baked in after non-conference play, it would make sense to have a couple more non-conference games to manipulate that number more in your favor with more quad ones or quad four opponents that you beat the brakes off of to enhance your efficiency numbers. Yeah, that's the part of it I don't like. I don't like it for several reasons. I don't like it for the experience of the student athletes.

The net. The net, meaning from having to benefit from beating you by 30 or beating you by 40. It's bad for everybody. It's bad for everybody. Both teams playing, the fans who have to watch it, it's bad. That's bad. You don't want to have to do that.

And unfortunately, that's what the net, when the computers are involved, that's what it forces you to do. And then you get to this point of the year and then you want to look back and say, hey, quad one or they don't have enough quad one wins and stuff. And it's different.

I just, and I said this to Forbes and I don't mind sharing this. I said to him, it's different because Virginia, Carolina, and Duke, it's different for them. But everybody else, because eventually Louisville will figure it out.

They have too much resources to be able to, they'll figure it out. And I think they'll jump back into that four. But it affects the Pittsburgh. It affects like Clemson a year ago. It affects Wake two years ago. It affects NC State. All of these teams that are trying to add themselves who have been over the last two or three years have been good enough to get in.

And Pitt got in last year and NC State did, but Clemson didn't and they should have gotten in. So I mean, everyone argues about the net and everything. It's just what I can tell everyone and everybody, because you got so many computer guys that'll be texting and tweeting and asking me. One thing I can assure you is the coaches have no idea. They don't know what it is or how to, what's the qualification for coaches. And I've said this with scheduling. If you tell us what we need to do to get into the tournament, then we'll know it.

Then I'll schedule, I'll change my schedule so that I can accommodate this so that it doesn't hurt me come March. Jim Phillips will never admit this, but I believe he is an advocate and he has been an advocate for expansion of the NCAA tournament because he believes that would solve problems that are existing right now with perception. And there are teams, you hear Greg Sankey, who was upset and advocating for expansion when A&M didn't get in a couple of years ago, when they got hot in the conference tournament. And I fear with the major conferences, we're arriving at a place where they're in favor of expansion to cover their own backs from being embarrassed on Selection Sunday.

I hope that's not true. It's coming. It's not just an ACC thing, but it feels like it's coming. It's coming. And the risks that come along with that when I can pull out this piece of paper here, Randolph-Childers, and I can't fit the number of teams on a bracket on this piece of paper.

The fear is, do you lose all those casuals that you rely on to watch in March that might not be watching your sport from November through February? That's my fear. It's coming. And what the number is will be the biggest part of it. Because I'm fine if you expand it to 72, if you add four more. That's what I'm saying. If you would keep it within reason, that's not going to happen.

If you get to 96, which is what they're talking about. Right. Which is what I think they'll do.

One, because there's so much more money and it allows more people to have a part of that. And I think there's no question that that's where we're headed to. It's a matter of time.

I hope they don't. Who wants it? I don't. Television executives and that's it?

The people who are worried about what the bottom line is, who wants the money, who wants more money and piece of the money, that's who it is. Because I don't want it to go past 68. I think it's enough now. But I just think that for coaches, again, tell me what you're looking at from a resume standpoint, what's important to you from these metrics of, I don't think you should be rewarded for beating a team. No, coaches don't care if they win by one point or 30. The argument they will make for it, they will say, we don't want to leave out potential national title contenders.

Out of 68 teams? That's what they'll argue. They'll argue UCLA making that run from the first four. They'll argue North Carolina in 2022 getting to the title game.

And they'll tell you that seven and eight seeds can win the tournament. Who are we leaving out? I am with you. I don't think we're leaving out national title contenders. Is Wake Forest a national title contender? I don't think so, with all due respect.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's winning a couple of games. The reality is that's all it takes.

You get to the March and you play the weekend and you win two games during the Sweet 16. That's all it takes. You just win two games. And try to win two more. And that's all you're doing.

You're taking it in sections. You're like, hey, let's win these two games. And then when you do that, I'm in the final 16 in the country.

No matter what I've done all year long, just get in and win those two games. And we were having another a year ago. Nobody was thinking Florida, you know, was South Dakota. I mean, San Diego State was getting in. Yeah. Are you kidding me? And credit to them.

They played well. And so I don't know. I mean, I just, FAU, you know, in their run, I don't get it. I mean, it's just a lot more than, we could sit here all night and never figure this out because I don't think leadership wise, we've had it figured out.

Let's get to a few things. Randolph Childress with us here. I think there are two ACC awards races that are done.

Like it's a wrap. Player of the Year, RJ Davis. Yes. He's the only player average 20 a game. He averages 21. I think that's a wrap. Rookie of the Year.

I think that's a wrap. I think it's Jared McCain from Duke. No. Do you think that Carrington or...

I think that's closer. I think that's recency bias. Why would you say McCain? I think he's the one freshman I look at that the entire season has been consistently great. Cadeau was great for a month. I don't know if he's been great though.

For a month, maybe. You think McCain? I don't think he's been great. I think he's been Duke's best player.

Absolutely not. You think it's Flip? No, it's been Jeremy Roach. The best player on Duke's been Jeremy Roach?

Yes. What's the case for that? I guess it's just you think he's most important to what they do.

You know what, maybe because I've watched them. Right. I think as they were trying to figure out the Tyrese Proctor deal, because when it matters and it's the guts of the game, they put the ball in his hands. That is true.

And that says a lot. When you're in all these close games and it matters, they're like, hey, I'm going to put the ball. And again, he's earned it right. But when you have all these, this backcourt and all these McDonald's All-Americans, and remember Tyrese Proctor was preseason. He was getting preseason All-American accolades. And so you look at it now, I don't think, I think Jeremy McCain's been really good. But I also think with the talent around him, I think he's been good. But I don't think he's been, I think some freshmen like Bob Carrington and even Burton has had more responsibility to their team.

Their team's all better. Burton's awesome at Notre Dame. He might be the quickest guy I've seen in the ACC this year. Yes, with the ball in his hands. He's great.

But I guess maybe in the most major moments, what are you at? Who are you? Tyrese Proctor doesn't play Saturday at FSU. Somebody needs to step up. He ties the Duke rookie record for scoring with 35. Take away that game and then what? Duke and Carolina. 21 points, 13 rebounds. The what he does, rebounding is impressive. I think of MSG Baylor, I think it was Baylor they played and he was one of the best guys on the floor a month into his career.

I just think he's a guy that shows up more often. And again, if we're just limiting the scope to freshmen, like I'm more willing to listen to the flip or Jeremy Roach arguments for best player on Duke. But best freshmen, I'd probably take him just because you could be argued as the best player on a top 14. So that one's in contention.

Coach of the year. No, only for you it's in contention. Oh, but no, you're saying it's in contention that it could be McCain. It could be Bub Carrington. It could be that one you still need to decide over the next two weeks is what I'm saying.

Yeah, I think it's more work to be done. But I think because I look at it from who they're playing with and what they've done. I think Burton's been in that conversation. I think Bub Carrington's in that conversation. McCain's in it. I'm not just being dismissive towards him.

But I think it's a lot more, there's so much more talent around him and he has so much less responsibility than some of those guys. If it's not Reese Beekman for defensive player of the year in the ACC, who are some other guys you really like defensively top of the conference? It's teammate. It's done. I think the player of the year stays in Virginia.

I don't think it comes off. It's either one or the other. Yeah, he was awesome on Saturday. Coach of the year. The first two names that come to mind are Hubert after not making the tournament a year ago and Tony Bennett, especially if he's able to finish strong, get a double bye for Virginia. What do you think of when you think about the conversation about coach of the year? How would you approach a criteria in trying to figure out who did the best job in the conference this year? I don't want to be dismissive to Hubert because I do think there was a tremendous amount of pressure on him and I thought this team was really good. And I still think they're the best team in the ACC, but man, the job Tony Bennett has done at UVA. I saw that team play against Memphis. I had that game and I thought the streak is over.

And then to see them, and I know they got hammered last night. But I think they have done more with less this year than anybody. I think what drives Hubert over the top for me, it's less last year because again, that was a failure of a season. He even acknowledges that. It's the pieces that he added, which in hindsight you could say, oh, of course that was going to make sense. But he added four guys, all of which that did not play in the NCAA tournament last year. And he moved off of his leading scorer and came in with a double bye. And he moved off of his leading scorer and Caleb Love a year after he hit, perhaps the most important shot in the history of their program. That is not easy.

And that requires really understanding your roster and what your team needs. And I think Hubert deserves a lot of credit for that. Oh, I listen, we're not wrong. I think those are the two guys. Yes, yes. I think you're spot on with that. It's a two-man race, so to speak. And let's see how they finish up.

I think that's the key. I mean, Carolina ran ahead of everyone. And then now they've been three and three since. And let's see how they finish up the season. But just a heck of a job.

Hubert shouldn't be punished because it's Carolina. Yeah. And Tony Bennett has done more with less. I think they're one of the least offensively challenged team. And he's done a lot with those guys. He's brought that group up despite and a heck of a, I don't even know what to describe last night's performance.

Last thing for you. RJ Davis, PJ Hall, Blake Henson, Hunter Salas, and Judiments are the leading scorers in the ACC right now. How many of those guys are all ACC guys? RJ and PJ feel like Locks. I think RJ and PJ are Locks. Dortchad O'Mear's not in that five, but he's been great all year. Would you say Flip would be in it? Philipowski be in it? I wouldn't. Who would you put in over him? I like O'Mear more than I like Philipowski. No. Even though Miami hasn't had a great year.

My thing is I got a reward win. You got PJ Hall right there. Would you put Blake Henson in over Philipowski? I think the last spot is going to come down to Henson and Salas.

I could see that. Much as I agree with some of the inconsistencies, yes, I think some of the inconsistencies that Philipowski's had, but I do think he's had moments. And I find it hard to believe with them sitting second with a chance to win the league that he's not going to be first team.

As much as people may be left expecting more from him. But I think that's problematic of the entire Duke team. I think that's just what you feel from them. It's like they're good, but there's just more. You feel like there's more with that team.

And obviously, I think Flip catch the brunt of that. So I think he'll make first team. I don't know how you're going to leave Reese Beekman off.

That's the piece. If Virginia finishes out strong, because he's the glue and the heart and soul and what he does on both ends of the floor. And averaging 14 a game.

He's carried that team and leading the league in assists. I don't know how you leave Reese Beekman off. And I think that's the fourth. And so in my opinion right now, I think it's going to come down to the head to head matchup we have tonight in Hunter Salas and Blake Henson. Nine o'clock.

Mike Monaco, Randolph Childress. This is so much fun. Thank you so much for squeezing in the time. Oh man, of course for you. I mean, forget that I have a game tonight, man. I got to hustle home and get back to the show, man. I'm coming to hang out with my guy. Hey, you know where Randolph Childress lives, W.D.? Curtisville.

That's what I'm saying. You were right down the street. This was easy. If I was now, I got to drive back to K Vegas. And then hustle back to Winston. And you guys just sit here and just drive across the street. Go get you a little latte.

And now I got to be back in the Joel in an hour and a half. Do you want a latte? I can get you one. I'm going to eat it tonight. The nine o'clock starts, man. My bedtime. You just let me know what you want. We got you. That's Randolph Childress.